Oil slumps 6% on demand concerns amid Europe COVID curbs, vaccine rollouts | Reuters
Oil prices tumbled about 6% on Tuesday as concerns over new pandemic curbs and slow vaccine rollouts in Europe compounded additional crude volumes.
Brent crude futures settled down $3.83, or 5.9%, at $60.79 a barrel, after hitting a session low of $60.50. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) ended $3.80, or 6.2%, lower at $57.76 a barrel, after touching a low of $57.32.
Both benchmarks traded near lows not seen since Feb. 9.
The front-month Brent spread flipped into a small contango for the first time since January. Contango is where the front-month contracts are cheaper than future months, and could encourage traders to put oil into storage.
“The road to oil demand recovery appears to be full of obstacles as the world continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy.
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